12 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



fossils, belonging to the Palermo limestone, while the 

 extremity of the cape consists of compact calcareous 

 rock, which penetrates to some depth. This locality, 

 therefore, presents in their order of natural superpo- 

 sition, specimens, as it were, of almost all the principal 

 strata, which, either isolated or combined into large 

 masses, compose more than two-thirds of Sicily. 



These calcareous strata, of which we have spoken, 

 have been worn away by the action of the waves, 

 and hollowed into recesses and basins, in which grow 

 thick tufts of Algae and Fuci, which afford asylums 

 to numerous marine populations. These excavations 

 constituted so many preserves, which promised us the 

 most ample success. We had also reckoned upon 

 finding numerous representatives of different littoral 

 species under the detached blocks of stone, which are 

 here scarcely covered by more than a few inches of 

 water, but we soon saw that an unforeseen circum- 

 stance would frustrate our hopes. Under the influ- 

 ence of conditions which are somewhat difficult to 

 understand, but amongst which a more or less power- 

 ful evaporation undoubtedly plays an active part, the 

 water of these seas in some cases dissolves, and in 

 other cases deposits a certain quantity of the lime 

 which it has removed from the submerged rocks. 

 In the latter case, the calcareous matter is deposited 

 like a sort of varnish on the surface of the stones 

 and boulders, which it agglutinates to one another, 

 and thus blocks up the passages, by which Annelids 

 and Worms of every kind might otherwise penetrate 

 into the interstices of the stone. This incrusting 

 matter presented a very great resistance, and the 



